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Road Race Talon Tsi AWD Build

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Update 10/15

Wow it has been a little bit since the last update.
August I got married and beginning of September was the honeymoon. After that had some work travel so the Talon just didnt get any attention until this weekend.

Since July:
- found both rear axles seized in the bearings
- removed rear axles and got a new set - RH side already in the car, LH I need to have the boots put on
- removed the aftermarket security system that was giving me the flashing issues
- tracked my no-start wiring issue to the fuel system. At some point I must have missed one or more of the wires on the relay so it wasn’t activating

After all that, the car finally started and idled!!
The intake system is almost complete, minus a BOV - I need a new snap ring to install that.
Started leak checking and found a few, as could be expected. Nothing at a gasket surface fortunately, just some AN lines that needed tightening.

Not many pictures to show but progress has been made!
Really gives me the motivation to keep on going into winter. The wiring issues made me go down a rabbit hole I didn’t want to pursue, so glad the fix was a simple one.

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Well it's been another good amount of time since last posting, but progress has been made!
Update 12/3:

Engine bay is basically complete with reassembly. The intercooler pipes were fitted with some modifications, and the exhaust went back together.
Car has been fired ~8 times now, although not running any more than 10 minutes at a time.
I have chased a few leaks, both coolant and oil, and have gotten the car to the point that it no longer has any leaky fluids!

The rest of the drivetrain has also been installed and the past weekend I was able to run the car through first and second gear on jack stands.
Fortunately, the car passed that test very easily and everything felt good.
I have to top off all the fluids for engine and drivetrain, and then the car should be able to come off the stands to roll for the first time.

I have also been working on CAD design for my roll cage.
I took some basic hand measurements and then used those to interpolate some of the other missing links.
Since I don't see too many DSMers out there posting about that, I figured I would show some pictures of that particular project.
The model is very much a "work in progress", but I am open to all feedback and suggestions from those in the racing community with knowledge to share.
I do have the fortunate of working with various professional level racing programs, so I have a good idea of the rules and general industry practices. Still, I probably have missed on or two things so I am very much open to conversation.

I will also mention that this model was created using Fusion 360, and although I have decent CAD experience, I only recently (maybe a week ago) started using Fusion. Some of the geometry is not "final level" shall we say (especially the door bars) but it gives a good feel for what I am trying to achieve.

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Update 12/10

Bit more progress made over the weekend. Getting into the more tedious and less glamorous stuff, the wiring.

Had a friend over and we removed the complete dash panel. From there, we decided to tackle the rear body harness first in order to remove all the unneeded wires.
Took about 5 hours to do it properly, but we removed everything running from the lower dash junction to the rear - door switches, speakers, keyless entry module, antenna, seat controls and a few other things.
We were left with only fuel pump control and rear lights. We may have shed ~5lbs just in all the extra wires.

Taped it all up nice and tidy and reinstalled.
We did remove the hack job of a fuel pump “rewire” kit, so the car is now under the factory control again.
Surprise surprise, the car starts much better now.

Next steps will be to continue going through the dash harness and removing what we can. The point of diminishing returns may set in, but we will find that point soon.

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Update 12/18

Smaller wins today in terms of wiring and clean-up. Have removed just about everything that felt comfortable from the wiring harness.

It’s a mess around the dash but should be cleaned up pretty easily with some tape and tubing.

The doors were gutted of wiring, windows, and regulators. Happy to get those out since that will be a good weight savings.

Battery was mounted to the trunk area and ran the heavy gauge wires from the engine bay. Also have the kill switch location picked out so have the wires getting routed there too.

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Update 1/3/2024

New year but same grind! I managed to take a couple extra days off this holiday to have time to really crank on the car.

In preparation for the cage, I’ve removed the seam sealer at the main mounting points for the main hoop and a-pillar bars.
The floor was sanded/grinded to remove surface rust. I also removed the factory seat mounts on the drivers side to lower the seat as much as possible.
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Got the interior wiring cleaned up as best as I can. The ECU is mounted to a plate on the passenger side and everything else is tucked up underneath the dash.
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Finally, I got the inner door skins cut out.
Overall, I think I’ve cut out or remove well over 100lbs since digging into the wiring, removing mounts, brackets, and extra metal.
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I will have my cage builder weigh the car before/after so we can see the progress!
Car should be headed off for the cage in 1-2 weeks and be done by end of March.

First GridLife event planned is in May, so once the cage is done, everything will be fast and furious to get it on track!
 
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That’s awesome. Hope to see you at some events.
I am hoping to make at least three - RevUp, Mid-Ohio, and Chicago since those are the three close to me. The Midwest Festival would be awesome but I am not banking on that since entry is a lottery. PITT Race at the end is the season would be come too but we will see how the first events go.

Have you planned out your schedule yet?
 
I am hoping to make at least three - RevUp, Mid-Ohio, and Chicago since those are the three close to me. The Midwest Festival would be awesome but I am not banking on that since entry is a lottery. PITT Race at the end is the season would be come too but we will see how the first events go.

Have you planned out your schedule yet?
The only GridLife event I’ll be at is Circuit Legends. Everything else is too far.
 
Update 1/27

Last couple of days have been pretty big!
Finally got the car out of the garage for the very first time. Ran it up the street once and immediately turned back around. I am sure there were a few loose suspension fasteners because there was a pretty significant rattle even at very low speed.
Outside1.jpg


Anyway, car was just in enough shape to get right up a trailer and headed off to the cage builder today. He is a good buddy of mine and does very good work. He has made more than a few cages for ChampCar and other series so I have faith. We will be following my cage design concept, with just minor tweaks based on the actual car.
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As soon as I got it to my friend's place, we put the car on scales.
I was hoping for under 2600lbs and was rewarded with almost exactly that! Cross weight is atrocious, so that will be remedied once new suspension is installed. And there is about 30lbs extra because I had to use a spare battery to get the car started and left it in during the measurement.
I am hoping that the aero balance of the car helps to offset the weight bias towards the front. Time will tell on that.

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Finally, we got working on the seat mount and ran into a couple clearance issues with the exhaust. This had been custom made by the previous owner and was showing more than a few signs of its age. We found multiple holes in the piping, so that got chucked. Will get a new system ordered pretty much immediately.
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With the car getting caged, I have a month or two to get my garage back in order and prepare for this season. Once it is back, it will be full steam ahead to preparing for Gingerman in May.
 
Update 1/27

Last couple of days have been pretty big!
Finally got the car out of the garage for the very first time. Ran it up the street once and immediately turned back around. I am sure there were a few loose suspension fasteners because there was a pretty significant rattle even at very low speed.
View attachment 720035

Anyway, car was just in enough shape to get right up a trailer and headed off to the cage builder today. He is a good buddy of mine and does very good work. He has made more than a few cages for ChampCar and other series so I have faith. We will be following my cage design concept, with just minor tweaks based on the actual car.
View attachment 720031

As soon as I got it to my friend's place, we put the car on scales.
I was hoping for under 2600lbs and was rewarded with almost exactly that! Cross weight is atrocious, so that will be remedied once new suspension is installed. And there is about 30lbs extra because I had to use a spare battery to get the car started and left it in during the measurement.
I am hoping that the aero balance of the car helps to offset the weight bias towards the front. Time will tell on that.

View attachment 720032

Finally, we got working on the seat mount and ran into a couple clearance issues with the exhaust. This had been custom made by the previous owner and was showing more than a few signs of its age. We found multiple holes in the piping, so that got chucked. Will get a new system ordered pretty much immediately.
View attachment 720036

With the car getting caged, I have a month or two to get my garage back in order and prepare for this season. Once it is back, it will be full steam ahead to preparing for Gingerman in May.
Hell yeah!! Hope you can make it to circuit legends!!
 
Update 2/12

Small update from this weekend.
Roll cage was started progressing.
The base plates have been fabbed and are tacked into position.

The seat mount has started and that took a turn almost immediately. We found not just one extra, but four extra holes in the exhaust, so that got tossed.
I purchased an STM catback and brought that over this past Saturday. It turns out that my downpipe flange is not rotated to the correct orientation, so it will take more fab work to get the flange correctly lined up.

Once that exhaust is sorted out, we will finish the floor reconstruction and get the seat mounted in position.

The main hoop was bent and then we go to work on the diagonal supports, harness bar, and rear down tubes.
The rear tubes are mounted to the shock towers about 3/4 the way up. It wasn’t where I had initially designed them, but they will still be plenty structural and as far outboard as we can get.

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